this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 4 points 15 hours ago

I think you need to turn on antialiasing in your settings

[–] tipicaldik@lemmy.world 10 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

We have LED street lights and our driveway is lined with crepe myrtles. Every evening after dark, I can see the grid pattern of the individual LEDs in the shadows on our driveway. It's trippy when there's a slight breeze, and all these little "grid shadows" are moving around overlapping each other

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Woah, like an irl glitch or something? Im super intrigued

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You can make a hole with your fingers and see the patterns of very bright lights above you, stadium lights etc. It's just a vertical camera obscura. I remember the 90s solar partial eclipse really well because I was riding home from school, the leaves and even the spokes on my bike projected moons everywhere, it was completely magical.

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

I watched the one in the late 2010s through the hole in my transit pass lol

Had glasses and travelled to totality for the last one. It was incredible. Highly tempted to try to make it to europe for the next one

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

Ye older Arboreal Eclipse

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 15 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It's uncanny and special for someone to be looking the other way during an eclipse.

It's so short and a rare enough even that would make earth a tourist hotspot for extraterrestrials if there ever was interplanetary tourism.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

uncommon on earth is common in the galaxy/universe

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

But the distance and relative size between our moon and star is so unique that even on a Galaxy scale that would be the number one touristic event.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/04/total-solar-eclipse-earth-universe-unique/677937/

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 8 points 1 day ago

It’s uncanny and special for someone to be looking the other way during an eclipse.

During the two minutes of totality I tried really hard to take in as much as I possibly could. The light was very weird the entire time and because I wasn't looking at the sun and moon when it happened, I saw the weird wavey shadow things as totality ended. Absolutely incredible experience and I highly recommend everyone experience it at least once in their life!

[–] InputZero@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Unless it was an annular eclipse, or it was a total eclipse and they weren't in the path of totality. Then this is all they would see. Regardless without eclipse glasses you shouldn't look at either eclipse at all.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

You can glance at the sun but don't stare at it. Even when it's only 1% visible, it's putting out enough light to strain or damage your eyes.

Though it's fine to look at the eclipse with naked eyes when it's total. You can't really see the cool effect surrounding the moon during totality with the eclipse glasses on because it's way dimmer than the sun usually is.

Your eyes will tell you if it's safe to look. If it's uncomfortably bright, then you shouldn't power through that discomfort (and that applies to things other than the sun). If it feels like looking at anything else, then it's probably fine.

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 2 points 1 day ago

I witnessed a partial one, with eclipse glasses. Still I didn't have the time or observational talent to notice the effect on the shadows

[–] Hathaway@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Or they had a camera recording.

[–] HakunaHafada@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Reminds me of a few Cessna's i worked on.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh i was just the mechanic

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Still jealous haha! They're such cool planes. I used to process aerial imagery from them.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

Ah nice! I liked the Lancairs, i got to fly one of them. For working in i think Pipers were my favorite, especially the Malibu. Plenty of space and logical layouts.

I guess working in the engines was nicer in the Cessnas since there was less baffling and no turbo, less places to drop books and nuts.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 72 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The reason this happens is because the tiny gaps between the leaves act as lenses, like in a pinhole camera.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

A pinhole camera has no lens. The effect here is like a pinhole camera, but a pinhole camera is nothing at all like a lens. Pinholes diffract light. Lens refract light.

EDIT: Of course you can't resolve an image through diffraction. That's not how pinholes cameras work. Diffraction negatively impacts image resolution, but it absolutely happens when light passes through them. But, although lens do use refraction to resolve an image, that same process also has unintended negative effects on image resolution (spherical aberration, chromatic aberration, etc.). I didn't bring up any of that because it was ultimately a distraction from the important part: narrow gaps diffract light, lens refract light, and pinhole cameras do not work like lens.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yea, but you could achieve this by placing a circle of cardboard in the middle or a ring that you attach to your lens.

I don't remember the guy but YT shorts I've seen a guy testing all sorts of different shapes and filters in front of his lenses or even just in front of his sensor without a lens.

Can't recall who.

Anyhow

[–] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

Our window blinds at school had tiny holes in them for the strings to go through and they had the exact same effect. You could see the eclipse projected once the tables.

[–] baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sunlight is always doing this. It's just that we call overlapping projections of a boring white-filled circles “dappled sunlight”.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Additionally, if you can make sunlight shine through a tiny hole that is somewhat level with the ground into a dark room or box, onto a flat, white surface, you can often see a projection of the world outside if the sun is hitting everything just right, the image will be upside-down and reversed, but often in full color like a video image.

Naturally occuring camera obscura must have freaked people the fuck out in olden times.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

in the house i grew up in, when the blinds were down in my window i would have a camera obscura for like half an hour each day. it made sick days more tolerable.

[–] ChanchoManco@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Once I hitched a ride on the back of a empty meat truck, so it was pitch black, some minutes in my eyes got used to the dark and started to notice a projection on the front wall and I could somewhat see what was behind the truck, even got to id car models.

[–] mEEGal@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago (2 children)

You can actually use this, or more generally the shadow of a tree on any sunny day to calculate the distance to the sun !

(Can't seem to find the video demonstrating it, but I have a feeling it's from Physics Girl or Up And Atom on youtube)

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 9 points 1 day ago

The ratio of the size of the image to the distance from the pinhole is the same as the ratio of the size of the sun to the distance to the sun.

[–] Zkuld@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] mEEGal@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

My gut says Thales' thorem, but this needs checking.

That's why I was looking for the video

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Thought it was just my coffee table

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 points 1 day ago
[–] MasterOKhan@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago

Best bokeh balls

[–] justlemmyin@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

well technically thats shadow of moon multiplied "naturally".

[–] latenightnoir@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Heey, it's the intro to Heroes on NBC

[–] webp@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Big if true

[–] JoShmoe@ani.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago